


weakness

by koganewest



Series: angst sentence prompts [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Cheating, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Langst, M/M, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, dont read this its really sad, they both need therapy so badly yikes, they're both in a lot of pain, when am i not writing fwb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 04:16:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15598098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koganewest/pseuds/koganewest
Summary: He knows he shouldn’t open the door. He knows he should be strong and turn Lance away. Let him live in the consequences of his decisions. Keith has always been strong.“Keith, I know you’re there. I know you don’t want to let me in, but I promise I won’t try anything stupid. I just need a friend. I need you. I have nowhere else to go.”But Lance is his weakness.





	weakness

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: i have nowhere else to go
> 
> loosely based off Good Wife by MIKA

It’s nearing 3am when Keith is jolted awake by a knock on his front door.

He’d fallen asleep on the couch watching Pawn Stars a few hours ago, half drunk and half miserable. The TV is just playing infomercials now, long past the regular programs, and the whiskey bottle remains on his coffee table. The apartment, cramped and lonely, is a mess from his most recent outburst, revealing through the chaos exactly what Keith’s life has become. His gaze wanders to the front door where the knock had sounded, vaguely contemplating who it could be. Maybe it’s the police, arriving with a noise complaint from a previous day. Maybe it’s a pizza guy with the wrong address. Maybe it’s -

“Keith, please.”

The last person on earth he expected it to be.

Lance’s voice breaks on the word, seeming to strangle him and die in his throat. Still, Keith recognizes it with the ease that comes from years of practice. He’s known that voice for years.

He’s been in love with that voice for years.

But Keith just can’t figure out why he’s at his apartment in the middle of the night. He should be in his house, his home, with his wife in bed and fast asleep. Or maybe not sleeping. Keith had heard from Pidge that they were trying for kids. Regardless, he should be at home with his wife, not here at Keith’s door.

Keith also knows he shouldn’t open the door. He knows better than that. Years before Allura, Lance showing up at his door in the middle of the night only meant one thing. That he wanted Keith.

And for years, Keith let himself be used. He let Lance have him, even if he didn’t deserve it at all. Even into their marriage, Lance still fucked Keith, still held onto him like they were the ones married, still left in the morning like it never happened. Then, a few months ago, Keith decided he’d had enough. He was done being treated like a mistress. He deserved better. He deserved to move on.

And yet, Keith knows he shouldn’t open the door. He knows he should be strong and turn Lance away. Let him live in the weight of his decisions.

“Keith, I know you’re there, and I know you don’t want to let me in, but I promise I won’t try anything stupid. I just need a friend. I need you.” A pause. “I have nowhere else to go.”

Keith has always been a strong person. A rough childhood had given him thick skin and resilience, along with countless issues. Keith has always been strong.

Lance is his weakness.

When the door opens, Lance stumbles in, and Keith immediately notices that he reeks of heartbreak. He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders, and a battered face to show for it. Keith doesn’t even know what to question first.

“Allura left.” And with that, Lance breaks down.

He falls into Keith’s chest, who reluctantly holds him there before walking them over to the couch. He lets Lance bury his face in his neck and cry his eyes out. The shaking of his shoulders makes Keith feel a myriad of things, but the most prominent consideration is to go on a war path for Allura for hurting him like this. His rage cools when he remembers that this is exactly how Lance made him feel just months prior.

“Come on,” he begins softly, nudging Lance’s shoulder to get him off. “I’ve got a two seater sofa and some whiskey.”  
__

By the time Lance has composed himself, Keith is practically falling asleep, but he listens anyway. Lance just sounds so broken up about it all, so lost. And if there’s anything Keith understands, it’s feeling lost.

“And after that fight, she found condoms in one of my sweaters. The one that I wore to your house on Superbowl Sunday, the last time me and you talked. That’s when she figured it out, y’know, that me and you were,” he shrugs, “fooling around.”

Keith flinches at the colloquial term, at the way Lance just brushes off what they were. He thinks back to the fight they had that night, when Keith had finally ended their so-called affair.

“She called me a bunch of horrible things, so I slept in the basement. But I went upstairs to check on her a few hours later, and she’d taken a suitcase and a bunch of stuff,” he chokes, sniffling again. “I don’t think she’s ever coming back.”

The twisted, heartbroken part of Keith is almost happy that Lance is finally getting what he deserves. A taste of his own medicine. But he doesn’t relish in it long, because the part of him that loves Lance just wants him to be happy.

“Can you say something? I feel like I’m talking to a wall,” Lance says, barely chuckling as he sticks an elbow into Keith’s side.

“Sorry, I just,” he starts, then sighs. “I don’t know what to tell you.” He knows what he wants to say, but he knows he can’t.

Then, Lance’s demeanor seems to change, like he remembers something. He gets off Keith’s sofa and begins looking for his phone and keys. “I should go. I shouldn’t have come here.”

“What do you mean?” Keith questions with wide eyes, standing to grab Lance’s arm, preventing him from running again.

“That! That’s exactly what I mean,” he yells and wretches his arm from Keith’s grasp. The other boy flinches like he’s been burned. “That look, that tone you talk to me in!”

“It’s just my voice, jeez! You woke me up at three in the morning, begging to come in! Not my fault I look and sound like hell!” He defends, crossing his arms and glaring at Lance angrily.

“That’s what I mean, Keith!” He yells back, then lowers his voice to a deadly whisper. “Why did you let me in? Tell me.”

“Because you needed a friend? You literally said that to me-”

“No! That’s not the reason, and you know it! I could’ve went to Hunk, or to Pidge, or to Shiro, but I came here. Why?” He demands, pausing to gulp in air. “Because I’m a _terrible_ person. Because I know that no matter how badly I fuck up, you’ll always be here waiting.”

Keith doesn’t even know how to respond.

“No matter how much I tell myself I’m here because you’re my friend, I know it’s because you’re the only one who won’t tell me I’m wrong. For some goddamn crazy reason, you love me. No matter how shitty I treat you, you still love me.

“And maybe I’m fucked up for using you, but you’re fucked up for letting me.”

A pause. Neither boy moves until Lance speaks again, this time softer.

“I’m better than this. I can’t keep hurting you.”

Then, Keith finally finds the courage to speak, though he knows his voice cracks on nearly every word. “So that’s it? You’re just gonna say terrible things to me, leave, and think you’re doing me some sort of justice?”

“It’s for the best. You know I’m right.”

“No, Lance, I don’t know that. Stop telling me what’s best for me! I think I know myself a little better than you do-“

“Oh, yeah, you’re doing a real great job of taking care of yourself,” Lance sneers, gesturing to the state of Keith’s apartment with sarcasm dripping from his tone. “Congrats, Keith, you’re barely _surviving-”_

“You absolute dick,” Keith growls, shoving Lance with both hands. Adrenaline and anger take over. “I should kill you. You’re so fucking miserable anyway-“

Keith is interrupted by a swift blow to his gut, knocking him back onto the couch. In a second, Lance is on top of him. He braces himself for another hit, but what he gets instead is Lance’s head on his shoulder.

“Why won’t you just hate me?” Lance sobs suddenly, and then Keith understands.

Lance is pushing him away.

Keith knows this tactic through and through. It’s practically reflexive for him, so he knows there must be an ulterior motive. “What’s this really about, Lance? Why did you come here?”

“I want to die,” he wails pathetically, and Keith’s heart breaks. “I want to go so b-bad, but I need to make sure I’m not leaving anyone be-behind. I just wish you would hate me. It’s be s-so much easier that way.”

Keith doesn’t know how to respond, so he just gathers Lance in his arms and rocks him until he calms.

“Why don’t you get some rest, yeah?” Keith soothes, picking him up with ease and carrying him to his own bedroom. When he places Lance in his bed, he immediately relaxes and yawns. Keith has to stop himself from tucking him into the covers, but instead turns to leave.

“You aren’t staying?”

Lance’s voice stops him in the doorway. He wants to say no, to keep walking and sleep on the couch.

But after all, Lance is Keith’s weakness.  
__

The next morning, Keith is alone. His face is wet with tears.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry this was super depressing lmao


End file.
